


Rumor Has It

by battle_cat



Series: Together [5]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, The Wives ship Max/Furiosa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 14:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8211163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/battle_cat/pseuds/battle_cat
Summary: Max and Furiosa are fucking and everyone has an opinion on it.





	

The first time, it’s Ace backing him into a shadowy corner of the garage with a crooked-mouthed growl of, “Oy. Wastelander.”

He looks around for an escape route and tries to control his instincts because the old War Boy has never been anything but neutrally gruff to him before, and now Ace is leaning into Max’s space and making it abundantly clear how much taller he is.

“You’n the Boss,” Ace growls. “Are you trading paint?”

Max makes a confused noise.

Ace sighs. “Are you _fucking?_ ”

Oh. That.

“Mm. Her business. What goes on in her room,” he mutters, because they haven’t exactly discussed it, what they’re doing and what it means and whether it’s supposed to be secret or not. It just kind of…keeps happening.

“So you are, then.” Ace folds his arms, his expression unreadable beneath his welding goggles.

“If you ever smegging hurt her, I’ll be using your entrails for a fan belt.” And with a final glare he stalks away back to the far side of the garage.

 

The next time, he’s on his back under a salvaged fire car, checking Toast’s handiwork. She knew a bit about cars from before she was taken, and her easy rapport with the blackthumbs makes them all eager to teach her.

“Looks good,” he mutters after he’s done inspecting the suspension. “Better have Furiosa check it over though, make sure it’s how she wants it.”

“Right,” Toast says, tightening a final lug nut, and then, so casually that it takes a moment for it to sink in: “If you break heart, you’ll have all of us to answer to, y’know.”

She slides out from under the car before he can muster a response, and he wants to say, _Wouldn’t,_ but he’s not at all sure he can keep that promise.

 

Furiosa isn’t quite sure how Capable and Dag roped her into repotting seedlings in the Vault-turned-greenhouse after lunch, but it’s too hot to do anything else, and it’s always better for her to keep busy than not, and so she goes.

She’s holding a far-too-delicate plant steady while Capable packs fresh earth around it when Capable says quietly, “So, you and Max…how is that?”

Capable is not looking her in the eye, but she’s spending a little too long tamping down the earth around the seedling before moving on to the next one.

“Private. That’s how it is,” Furiosa says, if only because it’s not a thing she dares put into words yet, because it’s heart-crushingly wonderful and utterly terrifying, and if she starts talking about it maybe it will be gone like a mirage on the horizon.

“But…he’s good to you?” Capable ventures.

The feared Imperator Furiosa absolutely does not blush. “Yes,” she mutters.

“And…you want to, right? You wouldn’t…if you didn’t want to…” Out of the corner of her eye she catches Capable’s gaze flick toward her.

“Yes. I want to.” Whatever else is happening between them, that much is clear.

“Good.” Capable nods, reassured, and then smiles a little. “That’s good.”

“If he turns out to be a schlanger, I have seven things in here that can poison him,” Dag volunteers from her spot on the ledge among the herbs. Capable clicks her tongue, but Furiosa feels an unexpected flush of warmth.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Cheedo pipes up from her spot across the room, lying on her stomach with a book spread open in front of her. “He’s clearly in love with her.”

Furiosa makes some undefined sound that she manages to turn into a cough.

“He’s staying here, even though it’s hard for him.” She flips a page idly. “You know...I think he must’ve had a family, Before.”

“What makes you say that?” Capable asks. Furiosa finds her mouth has gone dry.

Cheedo shrugs. “The way he is around the pups, and the milkers. He knows, but…he’s afraid.”

Cheedo is small and quiet, painfully young still, but she sees.

“I think they must be dead now,” she says, pausing to mark something in the book with a small stub of charcoal. “I don’t think he would’ve left them otherwise.”

Furiosa concentrates on the fragile green thing in her hand and tries to quiet the ringing in her ears. She already knows she will never ask him. If he wants to tell her, he will do it on his own time. She understands the instinct to keep a wound hidden, even from those closest to you.

 

She’s sitting propped up on the elbow of her shortened arm, trailing her fingers through his sweaty hair while his hand strokes lightly down her side from shoulder to hip and back up again.

“Lotta people,” he mutters, “seem to have opinions on…” He gestures vaguely to their intertwined bodies.

“Let ‘em,” she says, nuzzling down to kiss his throat. “Don’t care what they think.”

“They just. Wanna protect you.”

“I can protect myself.” She nips very gently at his ear.

“Mm. I know.”

“Just want”—she nudges him onto his back, sliding on top of him in a sudden press of hot skin and long limbs—“something to talk about.” She scoots up until she’s nose to nose with him, catching his bottom lip with her teeth and sucking it into her mouth. “Why disappoint them?”


End file.
